Faking It Till Forever

Chapter Four

CHARLOTTE

A knock makes its way to my ear before a brunette peaks her head. I have been standing in front of a mirror analyzing what Freya and Aria just said. I couldn’t recognize who was looking back at me, no wonder father said I looked entirely different.

“come in” I looked to her petite body, I am in no way bigger than her, I am slim thick and she’s just simply slim. She goes to our bed dropping her bag on the opposite side from mine. I head to the bathroom to take a shower but her voice stops me in my tracks.

“How does it feel?” she looks at me with something that looks to be- envy? “The hair I mean, how do you deal with it” I rake my hands through it with a smile.

“I don’t deal with it; you can’t deal with something you love.” I go ahead to pick my towel and gel when she adds.

“How do you about with it?”

“I love my hair so much, especially when it’s down but I can’t go out with it down because people see me as a crazy wanker with but length hair” I sit on the bed from my end playing with it.

“Blimey”

“Blimey is right, anyways, I’m gonna head to shower. Get some shut eye” I get up and head towards the bathroom with a sad smile.

I hardly talk about my mother because I know absolutely nothing about her except snippets that father tells me when he’s drunk.

He comes in stumbling on his feet barely being able to hold his own weight. Edward; my father’s best friend brought him in and dropped him on the sofa.

“Edward, what exactly happened to my father?” he looks at me with a sympathetic smile before relaying what happened.

“Bad day at work, so he took the night to treat us to dinner, one thing led to another and...” he points to father before looking at me. “Here we are”

After escorting Edward, I crouch down looking at the pained expression lining his face, my heart pulls at how papa must be feeling but nevertheless putting a warm smile on his face every single day, pretending to be okay just for me even when I ask if all is well.

“I’m sorry papa” I mutter more to myself than him, stroking his hair. I make a move to get up but his voice stops me in my tracks.

“You look so much like her”

“Pardon?” I crouch down again. He opens his eyes smiling at me.

“Your mother, you guys look alike, including the hair” he picks a few strands sniffing it before dropping. “Your mother always loved her hair so very much; she takes care of it just like how you do yours”

Lone tears slips down from his eye.

After taking a very long and hot shower, I got out of the bathroom feeling squeaky clean to find that Mia wasn’t in bed, so after putting on my pajamas, I head outside to find but instead she found me.

“Oh sorry, my apologies, didn’t see you there” she rears back with a cup on her hand. I move out of the way to let her in.

“I was on my way to find you, I just got out of the shower and didn’t see you on the bed.” I explain before lying on the bed and picking up my phone.

“Oh, I was a little parched so I went to fetch a cup of water”

“I figured as much” she gives me a forced smile before ignoring me for the rest of the night.

~~~

Mia completely ignored my whole existence the next day, not that I blame her, Adrian must have brought out the silence in her forcefully. But what shocked me was how easily she spoke to both Adrian and me later in the afternoon after giving me the cold shoulders all morning, and I could’ve sworn I saw a scowl on her face after Adrian compliments how different I looked.

I wore a blush pink turtleneck with cream high-waisted shorts, a scarf, a beret, a knee-high ivory white boots and finished the dressing with a dusty rose, effortlessly tailored coat draped to my waist.

We head to our supplies but he wasn’t around again and we were given the grace of two days to sort out whatever problem Aurora foods going through. So instead of sulking like how Adrian wanted it to be, I suggested we explore the city, we don’t know when we’ll be lucky enough to step foot in Tuscany.

As we were exploring the city, Adrian would bring back a memory we shared when we were together, I found it weird but then shrugged it off. We went to a nearby café, Adrian was a having a call with Blake, probably complaining about how we wasted our two days. Mia was on the phone call with her parents which seemed to be taking long, so I’m guessing she’s simply just avoiding me.

“Well there goes that” Adrian sighs taking a seat close to me. “Where’s Mia” I pinch on my tiramisu giving a first taste.

“She’s having a phone call with her parents” I point behind me before dragging the plate close to me getting ready to go beast on on the dessert.

“You look so dazzling” he rakes his hands through my hair and that simple act spiked my heart up, my breath stopping in their tracks. He sniffs my hair and then leans in sniffing my neck too. “And smell intoxicating” he grabs my throat not too tight bringing me closer to his lips.

A clatter breaks us apart; I look behind to find an angry looking Mia with a cut on her index finger with broken shards of glasses. Adrian rushes to her side gushing like a child just got shot. I roll my eyes squatting picking up the shards of the broken glasses, Adrian has always been a caring person and I love that character trait in him, it suits his persona, although now my heart is breaking into pieces.

I got distracted by the un-divided attention he’s giving Mia and end up cutting my palm. “s**t” I wince retracting my hand away from the glass, I look to Adrian, and he doesn’t seem to notice my cut. The worker comes and helps me with a napkin I was in daze that I didn’t realize when he dragged me to the chair.

He cleans my cut and put on a bandage. It feels like I’m here but a thousand miles away, it feels like I’m screaming but no one could hear me.

“Sta bene, signora?” the clerk speaks and I’m guessing he’s asking for my wellbeing. I nod my head at him even though my ears are buzzing. I gather my stuffs, ignoring them and getting out of the café hitting someone.

“I’m sorry” I fumbled not looking at him and running to the hotel.

~~

Life has its own way of making you grow even when you sure as hell don’t want to, just a few days ago I thought I was happy with the life I have, the job I work at and the boyfriend I have, but today’s event not only opened my eyes but also shake the living bejesus out of me. It has been three hours since when I ran out of the café, Adrian didn’t even notice that I was missing, I heard when they got back but they didn’t even check in.

Yes I know that Blake called and complained about how the aurora foods HQ have been buzzing his phone since when they found out. I just stayed in the room and wallowed in my own self-pity, its midnight when I wake up dripped in sweat and breathing heavily, I head over to the kitchen but a bump stops me in my track, there’s the bump again.

Bump

Bump

Moan

Bump

I slowly open the door to Adrian`s room and my whole body shook at the impact of what is happening.